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BIRDS OF AMERICA 



PINTAIL 

 Dafila acuta (Linnccns) 



A, O, U. Xumber 14J See Color Plate ij 



Other Names. — Male: Sprig-tail; Split-tail; Spike- 

 tail; Picket-tail; Peak-tail; Sharp-tail; Sprit-tail; 

 Spring-tail ; Spindle-tail ; Kite-tail ; Pigeon-tail ; Pheas- 

 ant-dock ; Sea-pheasant. Female: Gray Duck; Pied 

 Gray Duck ; Pied Widgeon. Either Sex : Winter 

 Duck ; Lady-bird ; Long-necked Cracker ; Harlan ; Smee. 



General Description. — Length, 24 to 30 inches. 

 Males are gray above and whitish below ; females are 

 brown, varied on body with ocher and dusky. Both 

 se.xes have the head small and not crested, the neck 

 long, and the tail long and pointed with 16 feathers; 

 in the male the two central tail-feathers are front 5 to 

 Q inches in length. 



Color. — Adult Male : Head and neck above, dark 

 brown glossed with green and purple; back of neck with 

 a stripe shading into the gray color of back; back, finely 

 waved with dusky and white; shoulder-feathers and 

 long inner secondaries, striped lengthwise with velvety- 

 black and silvery-gray ; lesser wing-coverts, plain gray ; 

 ijreater co'i'erts. tipped xvith rufous or cinnamon, edging 

 front of speculum ; speculum, greenish in front, bronzy 

 with violet reflections behind where edged with the 

 white tips of secondaries; tioo long central tail-feathers, 

 black: the remaining fourteen tail-feathers, gray; 



throat, white running up behind back of head in a 

 narrow stripe ; breast, abdomen and sides, whitish, finely 

 waved with black on sides; under tail-coverts, black; 

 bill and feet, grayish-blue; iris, brown. Adult Female: 

 Head and neck all around, warm yellowish-brown with 

 indistinct streaking; rest of plumage, varied with ocher, 

 plain brown, and dusky; tail without long central 

 feathers ; wing, as in male but much smaller ; bill, dusky 

 bluish; feet, dull grayish-blue; iris, brown. 



Nest and Eggs. — Nest : On the ground, usually in 

 tall bunches of prairie grass, near water; made of dry 

 grass, snugly and warmly lined with down. Eccs : 7 

 to 10, pale greenish to olive-bufif. 



Distribution. — Northern hemisphere ; in North 

 America breeds on Arctic coast from Alaska to Kee- 

 watin and south to southern California, southern Colo- 

 rado, northern Nebraska, northern Iowa, and northern 

 Illinois ; winters from southern British Columbia, 

 Nevada, Arizona, southern Missouri ; southern Wis- 

 consin, southern Ohio, Pennsylvania (rarely), and 

 Delaware south to Porto Rico and Panama, and in 

 Hawaii ; in migration occasional on the Atlantic coast 

 to northern Ungava, Greenland, and Newfoundland, 

 and in Bermuda. 



In other writings I have characterized the Pin- 

 tail as the greyliound among waterfowl. It is an 

 interesting, agile, swift-flying, hardy species, the 

 male being wonderfully garbed in a most effec- 

 tive blending of gray, white, and brown, surpass- 

 ing many other birds of more gaudy hues. 



Though shy enough ordinarily, it becomes readily 

 accustomed to luan. The young are easy to rear 

 and grow up very tame. I predict that the time 

 is not far distant when the domesticated Pin- 

 tails will be almost as familiar as tame Mal- 

 lards, and will be raised on preserves and estates 



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Photograph by H. K. Job 



PINTAILS 



Flying past blind and decoys, Little Vermilion Bay, Louisiana 



Courtesy of Outing Publishing Co. 



